National Office for Industrial Free Zones
NOIFZ, the National Office for Industrial Free Zones, is the non-profit regulatory body established to oversee and administer Cameroon’s Industrial Free Zones program. As a private sector dominated body, NOIFZ possesses the capacity to truly operate as a “one-stop-shop”, expediting investment approvals and Customs procedures, and responding quickly to investors’ needs in order to ensure the IFZ program’s effective management and implementation.
NOIFZ has the authority and responsibility to:
1) Receive and review applications for designation as an Industrial Free Zone(IFZ), Special Industrial Free Zone(SIFZ) or IFZ Developper Enterprise;
2) Issue the applicant with a receipt certifying that the application is complete and showing the date on which it was received;
3) Submit the complete application to the Minister responsible for Industrial Development within five (5) working days following the date shown on the receipt;
4) Notify the applicant when the Minister in charge of industrial development has issued the order designating the proposed area as an Industrial Free Zone;
5) Grant a developper’s and/or operator’s permit following review of a complete application for areas having previously been designated as Industrial Free Zone;
6) Rule on the application originating from private or public parties seeking to qualify as Industrial Free Zone enterprises and grant them a certificate of compliance and alter or modify the certificate of compliance at the holder’s request;
7) Establish an on-site office within each Industrial Free Zone, empowered to grant the certificate of compliance to qualifying enterprises within that zone;
8) Establish procedures for settlement by mutual agreement, of disputes arising between developpers and enterprises, or between either of the latter and the administrative service provided for in article 23 of the IFZ ordinance;
9) Ascertain violation of the IFZ Ordinance, establish fines for such violations and penalize the offenders;
10) Monitor the performance and growth of the Industrial Free Zones and publish its findings periodically, including all relevant statistical data such as land areas developed, buildings occupied, jobs created, gross and net foreign exchange outflows of Industrial Free Zone enterprises;
11) Establish, as decided by its Board of Directors, a binding procedure and criteria in the form of a standard application form, to be followed by private and public parties seeking designation of a given area as an Industrial Free Zone, or Special industrial Free Zone, or seeking to obtain a developper’s permit, an operator’s permit and/or a certificate of compliance.
